The invention relates to a method and apparatus for hanging a picture, mirror or other object on a wall.
It is clearly desirable to hang pictures, mirrors and other objects on walls in a manner that is pleasing to the eye of even a casual observer. In the case of a plurality of objects hung in a manner intended to be aligned, even minor errors in alignment are noticeable. Therefore, decorators take great care in insuring that wall hangings are appropriately arranged to avoid even the slightest alignment error. Importantly, proper hanging of pictures and mirrors greatly reduces the warping of picture frames and the need for constant straightening of the picture or mirror.
Many pictures, mirrors and other wall hangings are secured using one or more wall anchors, such as nails, screws or special purpose hanging brackets, that catch or otherwise mechanically communicate with a wire horizontally disposed, and attached to, the rear or xe2x80x9cwall sidexe2x80x9d of the picture, mirror or object to be hung. Thus, in addition to attempting to insure alignment of the various objects to be hung, a decorator must also control the relative position of the wall hanging brackets and the wire used to secure the wall hanging. In the case of mirrors, non-wire mounting is typically provided by including fixed mounting hardware on the back of a mirror which may or may not be properly aligned, thereby leading to poor hanging alignment. This situation is typically resolved by repeated moving of one or more objects after an initial hanging of the object on the wall, resulting in possible damage to the wall and/or object to be hung. Additionally, two people are typically required to hang a picture unless the picture is very small.
Therefore, it is seen to be desirable to provide a system and method for aligning an object to be hung on a wall and for determining a priori the points upon the wall which will receive an anchor, prior to hanging the object on the wall.
The invention comprises a system and method for aligning an object to be hung on a wall and for determining the points upon the wall which will receive an anchor to secure the object. Additionally, the invention may be readily adapted to work with mirror hangers, which do not use a hanging wire, such that mirrors may be hung in a straight manner even if the non-wire hangers are not accurately positioned on the back of the mirror.